Rotary Club Of WC Planning Biggest Event

honduras-eric-copyThe Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon, which meets Wednesdays for lunch at Quail Hollow Country Club (QHCC) off Old Pasco Rd, is doing more than just planning its next humanitarian trip to Troyes, Honduras, in April 2017.

The club is selling plaques to local businesses and individuals interested in supporting our area’s largest Rotary Club — which has sent 10-20 of its nearly 100 club members each year for the past five years to install latrines and water purification systems (in conjunction with the nonprofit organization called Pure Water for the World) in one of the most impoverished areas of one of Central America’s poorest countries,.

WC Rotary Club member Troy Stevenson of Wesley Chapel Nissan (and Acme Outdoor Movies) came up with the idea because he had been part of a similar fund raiser as a member of the WC Lions Club. Club member Trevor Campbell of Cash 4 Gold off S.R. 54 and Eiland Blvd. in eastern Wesley Chapel, picked up the idea and ran with it.

Campbell, who will be making his third trip to Honduras with the club, says Stevenson’s contacts have helped the WC Rotary get 300 plaques for a reasonable price, which Campbell, Stevenson and other club members have been selling {with all checks made payable to the “Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel Noon Foundation,” the club’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit fund} to area businesses by knocking on doors.

honduras-plaque-1-copy“For a hundred dollars, you not only get a plaque, you get to show the public that you support the biggest international humanitarian effort our club makes every year,” Campbell says. “I took three weeks off from work to knock on as many business doors as possible and people really do seem to know about our club’s efforts and want to support us. It’s been pretty gratifying.”

At our press time, Campbell and his fellow WC Rotarians have more than 100 commitments from local businesses at $100 per plaque. “And, we’ve already got $8,000 of that in-house,” Campbell says proudly. “I’m still hoping to sell all 300 plaques this year. The more we raise, the more we can do for these amazingly appreciative people.”

The WC Rotary has helped install hundreds of these life-saving water purification systems in the homes in Honduras and will continue to send — and help — as many people as possible each year, with the continued support of the community.

Current club president, Dr. Pablo Rivera of Core Spine & Rehabilitation, who has missed only one of the five previous trips, says, “No one has ever come back from our Honduras trips unchanged. Help us this year and maybe you’ll end up wanting to join us next year.”

For more information, visit WCRotary.org or attend a meeting any Wed. at noon at QHCC as my guest. First-time attendees are always free. 

Local Volunteers Walking For Freedom

a21walkwebThe average age of a victim of human trafficking is just 12 years old. Only 1-2 percent of victims are ever rescued. Worldwide, an estimated 27 million people are currently in bondage.

These shocking statistics are according to A21, an organization that gets its name from its mission, which is, “Abolishing injustice in the 21st century.”

A group of local volunteers is supporting this organization and its mission by participating in A21’s annual “Walk For Freedom” with an event in Wesley Chapel on Saturday, October 15, 9 a.m., beginning at the Shops at Wiregrass mall.

“A lot of people aren’t aware that human trafficking is in our own neighborhoods and communities,” says event organizer Rachel Martinez. “We are hosting this walk to bring awareness to this issue.”

Rachel is a Wesley Chapel resident who participated in the walk last year, along with her family and about 100 others. She’s hoping that this year, even more will participate, so that many people throughout our community will see the line of walkers, dressed in black, as silent ambassadors for a cause they want others to care about, too.

“This year, the sidewalks are complete, so we can walk west along S.R. 56,” Rachel says. “We want people to see us in our shirts as we walk all the way to I-75.”

She also says that local churches have supported the walk by paying for necessary permits, and fund-raising efforts cover costs for items such as bottled water for the walkers. There’s no cost for participants to attend, although they are encouraged to purchase an official A21 Walk For Freedom T-shirt from the website A21.org.

Rachel became interested in supporting the mission of A21 when she heard the founder of the organization, Christine Caine, speak at an event at her church. Caine is a Bible teacher, activist, and evangelist from Hillsong Church, an Australian megachurch.

“Her story and her passion really hit home for me,” says Rachel, who adds that in her job handling statewide permitting for a construction company, she’s often on websites for various municipalities, and she’s struck by how often those local governments have task forces and resources dedicated to fighting human trafficking.

For example, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) has information on its website (PascoSheriff.com) that underscores Rachel’s concerns. The PCSO website says that human trafficking is an industry worth billions of dollars, and is one of the largest criminal enterprises in the world, second only to the illegal drug trade. And, there are more people held in slavery in the world today, than at any other time in human history.

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center ranked Florida third among all states in the U.S. in the number of calls received by the center’s human trafficking hotline in 2015, as it has in past years, and many of those calls were from the Tampa Bay area.

“It’s big, big money, but maybe by bringing awareness to this issue, we can nip it in the bud,” Rachel says. “Maybe kids will learn something that will keep them safe from an unfortunate situation.”

To register to participate in the walk, visit A21.org/WesleyChapel or email FL4Freedom@hotmail.com.

New School Boundaries Set In Motion

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Pasco School District officials will not name High School GGG off Old Pasco Rd. in Wesley Chapel until after the school’s boundaries are set.

Two days after a heated rezoning meeting took place on the west side of Pasco County, the first stage of east side of Pasco rezoning that will affect many students in Wesley Chapel kicked off Sept. 16 in the media center at Wesley Chapel High.

With a new grades 6-12 high school — currently referred to as GGG High — on the way, District officials are hoping the new school can alleviate the overcrowding at all of Wesley Chapel’s middle and high schools.

Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) currently is at 153 percent of its capacity, the most in the county by far. Built for 1,633 students, WRH today has 2,495 students enrolled. It is currently operating on a 10-period school day, adopted for the 2015-16 school year, to ease overcrowding.

WRH’s  primary feeder school, Dr. John Long Middle School, was built for 1,327 students but currently enrolls 1,870, or 147 percent of its capacity.

Wesley Chapel High (WCH) was built for 1,506 students, but has 1,669 enrolled, or at 111 percent of capacity, while Thomas E. Weightman Middle School has 1,186 students, or 122 percent of its 975-student capacity.

gggwebPasco’s School Boundary Committee (SBC), with administrative representatives from every school, as well as two parents from each school, met to begin the process of drawing the boundaries for GGG, which will open in time for the 2017-18 school year on Old Pasco Rd., just south of Overpass Rd.

Chris Williams, the director of planning for the Pasco School District,  is hoping things don’t become as contentious as they have in the Trinity area, where dozens of parents have railed against the School Board over plans to redraw J.W. Mitchell High’s attendance zone.

“At least here (in Wesley Chapel), (parents) may be concerned but they seem to be willing to wait to see how the process evolves and see what the committee does and evaluate then,” Williams says.

Both the high school committee and middle school committee came to the one preliminary opinion –— it makes sense to start filling in the boundary with students located in Quail Hollow West, Lexington Oaks, Grand Oaks, The Oaks, Cypress Estates, Stage Coach Enclave, Cypress Creek Town Center and Veteran’s East (the area located south of Veterans Elementary School encompassing Tampa Downs Heights, Saddlebrook Village West (Westbrook Estates), Willow Lake and Quail Hollow Village).

That would account for roughly 1,000 of the 1,200 high school students that would attend GGG next year, pulling 650 students from Wesley Chapel and 380 from Wiregrass Ranch, while also taking enough middle schoolers to relieve both John Long and Weightman.

That’s just for starters, though. The committee still has to consider socio-economic balance, maintaining feeder patterns, future growth in certain areas (especially in Wiregrass Ranch), transportation and subdivision integrity.

The committee came up with 3-4 other options, as it also has been tasked with helping to relieve crowding at Sunlake High and Charles S. Rushe Middle School in nearby Land O’Lakes.

GGG is being built at a cost of $65-million on 100 acres of land bought by the county 10-11 years ago., Williams said.

“We receive impact fees for new houses, so for every new regular single family house, that brought the district just under $5,000 (per home),’’ Williams says. “On average, that’s $9.5-million per year, so you can see to get to $65 million takes a few years.”

The School District generally looks for 60-70 acres of land for new schools, so Williams says there is plenty of additional space to build a middle school (and maybe even an elementary school) on the site in the future, although there currently is no timetable for building those schools.

The SBC will hold its next meeting on Thursday, September 29, at WCH’s media center from 10:30-1 p.m., and a third meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 20.

A meeting for parents to debate the SBC’s recommendations will be held at WCH on Tuesday, November 29, with the SBC meeting on Friday, December 2, to discuss feedback from the parent’s meeting

The SBC will determine if any changes are needed before forwarding the proposed GGG boundaries to the School Board for a January vote.

Mechanical failure temporarily KOs AC at FHWC

FHWC-expansion-webThe air conditioning was knocked out at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel Tuesday night, but technicians restored it in approximately two hours as the hospital returned to normal operations.

According to Pasco County public information officer Doug Tobin, Pasco Fire Rescue, Pasco Emergency Management and the Pasco Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of an explosion in the central plant at FHWC (2600 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.) around 6:20 p.m. There were no injuries reported.

FHWC did not reference an explosion on their Facebook page. “Earlier tonight, a chilled water pump failed and over pressurized, causing a small mechanical failure in the central energy plant behind the hospital,” it says on the FHWC Facebook page. “We worked very closely with Pasco County Fire Rescue and Emergency Services. Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel never lost power and did not need to go on generators. The hospital did lose air conditioning for about two hours. No patients were transferred.”

None of the hospital’s patients needed to be evacuated.

The air conditioning was back on at around 8:30 p.m.

Hyatt Place Wesley Chapel Announces Construction Plans

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The Hyatt Place Wesley Chapel has announced it will begin construction in early 2017 on the latest hotel to go up on the busy S.R. 56 corridor.

The hotel will have 130 rooms and will be developed by Impact Properties. It will be built on the northwest corner of S.R. 56 and I-75 across from the Tampa Premium Outlets.

“After owning this property for 30 years and knowing its potential, we are delighted to see this project materialize,” said Michael Sierra, vice president of Sierra Properties, in a statement.

The new hotel will feature:

  • 130 rooms with separate spaces to sleep, work and play.
  • Free Wi-Fi throughout
  • 24/7 Gallery Menu and Market available any time of the day
  • a.m. Kitchen Skillet, providing free hot breakfast for guests
  • A 6,000-sq.-ft. high-tech conference center
  • 24-hour StayFit gym

Sierra also said that in addition to Hyatt Place Wesley Chapel opening, Phase 1 will see the completion of 230 multi-family luxury apartments and 10 new places to eat, referring to places like Ford’s Garage, Pollo Tropical, Wendy’s and Taco Bell that are currently in permitting. LongHorn Steakhouse and BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse are also expected to open soon almost directly across S.R. 56.

Hyatt Place Wesley Chapel will be the first Hyatt property in the county, and will also be the first integrated within the 500-acre mixed use Cypress Creek Town Center development, which has over 2-million-sq.-ft. of retail space, hotel, multi-family and office space.

The new hotel joins others being built along the S.R. corridor, such as the 123-room Hilton Garden Inn (which broke ground this month and hopes to open in summer of 2017), the 80-room Holiday Inn Express by Florida Hospital Center Ice and a 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites Wiregrass (currently in permitting) near the Shops at Wiregrass.